The magnetic levitation technology that Rainbow Coral Corp. joint venture partner Nano3D BioSciences (n3D) recently used to grow lifelike human lung tissue could one day lead to an even more astonishing breakthrough—lab-grown, implantable human organs.

A recent article by TechNewsDaily described the cell culturing techniques employed by n3D co-founder Dr. Glauco Souza to levitate and grow layered human tissues including lung tissue, heart valves and stem cells which show tremendous promise to advance regenerative medicine.

These breakthroughs are all big steps toward a far-off goal: organ implantation.

“Nano3D’s Bio-Assembler technology was recently used to create the first lab-grown lung tissue with organized layers of cells, and incredibly enough, that’s only the tip of the iceberg,” said RBCC CEO Patrick Brown. “Dr. Souza and n3D are truly on the cutting edge of regenerative medicine, and we couldn’t be more excited to help market it to elite laboratories and researchers around the globe.”

Rainbow BioSciences, RBCC’s biotech division, signed a joint venture agreement with n3D last year to help develop and market the Bio-Assembler. The device utilizes a proprietary process to enable scientists to grow cells in a three-dimensional environment using nanoparticles that produce magnetic fields to lift cells from the bottom of petri dishes.

Compared with conventional cell cultures grown on flat surfaces, these three dimensional cultures form tissues that more closely resemble those found in the human body. The technique has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of developing new drugs as well as eliminate the use of animals when testing the safety of manufactured chemicals—not to mention potentially grow functional organs from scratch.